A visit to the caves

Our day started out with Z decorating these little gift bags for his classmates, I didn't tell him what to draw,  he came up with a different plant for every single one,  and when I looked at them I felt really validated, because I could literally see how this place, this nature is sinking in to his little soul

I can see banana plants, water apple coconuts, flowers from our yard and mangos and my heart sings

we have started our easter grass, since as I have mentioned before my children are great traditionalists.We are growing it appropriately in coconut shells here

we planted basil in the new deck box hubby built

after breakfast, we picked a bunch of green coconuts from our tree. I love them when the water inside is sweet and almost fizzy and sparkly, because they are about to turn hard. Do you know that stage?

We took off early morning to the caves, I had actually never been, its a beautiful drive, through a secret mangrove channel up into the jungle.

Its really magical to be gliding along through this channel of milky swampy water, listing to the sounds of the jungle, grabbing at vines and seeing sloths

mangrove roots

this was so timeless, we passed two indian girls rowing a wooden cayuco up through the channel with buckets of clothes to go hand wash by the spring

docking up, a boatman always has to remember to jump out and grab the rope

this womans bag, called a chackara, is very ancient tradition, made by knotting and dying fibers of the pita or cabuya plant

Ngobe indian homes

the girls arrive at the fresh water creek with their laundry

this water is cool and fresh

mouth of the cave

in we went, then my camera flash died. It was soo cool and dark and otherworldly in there, so ancient, and filled with the chirping of bats, thousands of them clinging to the ceiling, fruit pieces all over the floor, because they bring in fruit to eat in the caves. You can go up up up through stalagmites and stalactites to some cool water pools and bathe, but we had a few shrieking terrified moments from Imani and decided not too

Z finds a frill neck lizard in the caves

is astounded when it puffs up its neck to reveal this yellow balloon

indian baby peeking out

this is a typical jungle  dwelling structure that would be built using all available materials, bamboo, penka leaf,  and below: what looks like rope to tie it all together, but is actually a jungle vine that is green and flexible when fresh,  and then dries hard and tight to keep everything in place, so amazing

those hanging bag looking things are yellowtail bird nests, so cool

we stopped to snorkel on our way back

and Toby, this is for you,  we stopped at the Roots restaurant and Ana, my favorite cook was cooking, we had the most wonderful lunch. Coconut "rice and peans (not a typo) salad and smoked chicken in sauce. Soo good.

We spent the rest of the day busting almonds with rocks and eating them at Dogwood, around the point of the island where there is a cool breeze, it was a HOT day!

Happy tuesday